How you could be saving thousands on your fuel bill!

Posted 23 Sep 2015

Ok, so heres the thing, We get asked all the time by fleet operators "How much money does installing aerodynamic aids on
my vehicles actually save me?" (We may be paraphrasing, but that is essentially the question). The answer, in all honesty,
is it could potentially save you thousands of pounds a year in fuel! So, to try and make things nice and clear we have decided
to write a FREE guide for you on what you could be potentially saving in fuel if you choose to install a Kuda Air Management
kit to your vehicles.

The issue of excess fuel consumption. How much is it actually costing?

We all know that having a large flat area travelling through air creates a huge amount of aerodynamic drag and thus leads
to excess fuel being consumed by the vehicle, that bits simple. But what actually are the figures? According to an external
study the problem is actually far more than most people anticipate. Essentially for every 200mm of "flat" bulk head that
you have exposed to the air flow, will increase your vehicles fuel consumption by 3%! Three Percent, that's a huge amount
of fuel over the course of a year. An average fuel bill for a heavy goods vehicle travelling 100,000 miles per year is
something around the £65,000 mark. A 3% increase for that tiny 200mm of bulk head is potentially costing you (on average)
£1950.00 every year in fuel!

Now, you may think that 200mm of bulk head is the worst case scenario. Unfortunately this is not the case. Most of our customers
who run high volume trailers experience an excess bulk head clearance above the spoiler of 400mm! Potentially costing
them £3,900.00 every single year in fuel for every vehicle they run.

High Volume Trailers, Great to haul more but you have to get the aerodynamics right!

Most new vehicles purchased today are manufactured in Europe, leaving the factories with standard air management kits
fitted suited for trailer heights of roughly 4.2m due to European legislation. In the UK however there is no such
legislation with many operators pulling up to 4.6m trailers, hauling more and saving money.With a standard factory
kit only having an average maximum height of 4.2m coupled to a 4.6m trailer, this causes a large amount of aerodynamic
drag on the face of the trailer, severely effecting the vehicles fuel economy.

The problem therefore is an obvious one, the spoiler on the roof of the truck needs to have the right aerodynamic shape,
height and angle to make sure that the airflow is optimally directed from the front of the cab, up and over the roof
mounted blade and then over the trailer. With this in mind we at Kuda UK have developed our high volume air management
kits.

Leading the way in high volume air management is our latest and most aerodynamic spoiler which we have affectionally dubbed iAM (Improved Air Management, pictured). iAM has been designed to combat the increased air flow. By increasing the height and aerodynamic shape of the top cab spoiler and
lengthening the in-fill ears enables us to achieve overall spoiler heights of up to 4.8m.

This increased height gives a much better aerodynamic yield and thus increases the fuel efficiency of the vehicle. Most importantly,
this increased fuel efficiency will save you money on your fuel bill.

High Volume Air Management Kits? "They sound expensive!" (Hint; they are really not)

Actually they are really not, not when you compare the cost of the air management kit to the potential money you will
be saving by eliminating the excess drag on the vehicle. On average a full high volume air management kit can pay
for itself in just 25 weeks! Yes, the return on investment is really that quick. Meaning that within the first year
of fitting you could potentially be saving in excess of £1,900.00 PLUS your shiny new high volume
air management kit will have totally paid for itself.

Sound too good to be true? In this case it really is the truth, theres no hidden fees, confusing terms and conditions
or that you have to drive in a vacuum to achieve the savings we boast! It's truly simple;

Running a high volume trailer with a "standard" blade adjusted to 4.2m could be costing you in excess of £3,900.00 per year, per truck in fuel.

Installing a Kuda High Volume air management kit to that vehicle will aid in eliminating the drag from the bulk head.

The High Volume AMK will pay for itself in as little as 25 weeks.

In the first year you will have a potential saving of £1,900.00 per truck and the air kit fully paid for!

But I run different height trailers, surely a big spoiler will create more drag on smaller trailers?

Yes, this is true. However all of our high volume air management kits are fully adjustable. Either with manual adjusters,
electric adjusters or our snazzy new fully automatic LaserEye spoiler adjustment system. Making sure the spoiler
is set at the correct height is key in maintaining the most fuel efficient way in running your vehicle. We understand
here at Kuda that asking a driver to adjust his spoiler in the wind and rain by climbing up the back of the cab on
a ladder creates a huge health and safety risk and also, who can blame a driver to not want to leave their nice warm
cab for any longer than they need to!

With this in mind we developed LaserEye. The LaserEye system is fully automatic and super intelligent. LaserEye is an
additional option on all of our high volume air management kits, we replace the manual adjusters with electronic
external graded hydraulic rams and fit a cleaver "eye" to the centre of the rear return on the spoiler. LaserEye
is "live" as soon as you turn the vehicle on. LaserEye starts looking for the trailer before you've even coupled
up. Simply back up to the trailer as normal, couple and drive away, LaserEye will automatically adjust the spoiler
to the optimum height for the trailer you are pulling thus ensuring that the angle is perfect for maximum fuel efficiency.

The best bit, LaserEye can be coupled to a Kuda High Volume air management kit and all of it together will still pay
for itself well within the first year of it being in operation and STILL leave you with additional fuel savings!

That's it, thats how you could potentially be saving thousands a year in fuel! So what next?

Obviously we have written this guide to explain all of the potential savings we could aid in making you, but of course
we have a huge portfolio of aerodynamic products available for almost every make of truck, all available to view
and purchase online right here!

And of course, our fuel saving experts are always on hand at the end of an email or the phone to answer any questions
you may have with regards to your vehicle aerodynamics. Just contact us today for a totally free and non-obligation
chat about the potential savings you could be making!